Death in the Lens (Ru: Смерть в Объективе) is a Russian crime drama series directed by Arthur Rumynskij. The series has two seasons for a total of 24 episodes. The series stars the insurance claims investigator Felix Fisher and photographer Valeria Azarova, who embark on an adventure to investigate the death of Valeria's husband when the police deem it to be an accident, but Valeria does not think so.
As this is a murder-mystery series, there are unmarked spoilers below.
Death in the Lens provides examples of the following tropes:
- A Deadly Affair: The murder in "The Stone Visitor" was carried out by the victim's husband when he found out that his wife was cheating on him.
- Artistic License – Medicine: All of the medication names in the show are made up.
- Throughout the show, medical personnel immediately declare murder victims dead without trying to render aid, even if the victim collapsed just seconds ago in front of everyone.
- Artistic License – Biology: One of the murder victims was killed by putting insulin in his wine. In real life, this is not a good means of administering insulin, as it is poorly absorbed orally and is broken down by the stomach.
- In a different episode, one victim is poisoned with rat poison and dies instantly. Modern rat poisons are made to take time to kill.
- At the end of "The Smell of the Murderer", Rudin's throat is slit by a deranged woman. The surgeon then says that his aorta was damaged, even though it is the carotid arteries that would be damaged in such a case.
- Batman Gambit: Several times throughout the show, the main character would be revealed to have acted as part of a plan that expects the target to act as they usually do. It always works.
- At the end of the first season, Valeria extracts a confession from Uncle Misha by pretending to have tea with him while carrying hidden listening devices.
- In the same episode, she anticipates that Misha would try to drug her via tea, and so prepares an antidote ahead of time.
- At one point, she extracts a confession from the murderer by claiming that she has a photograph of her carrying out the poisoning, even though no such photograph exists.
- At the end of the second season, Christina goes to confront Aida Markovna. She anticipates that Markovna will try to use the mind control phrase on her, and so wears earplugs so that she is unaffected. She then uses this as an opportunity to kill Markovna.
- Eagle-Eye Detection: Valeria notices every single tiny detail in photographs and uses this skill to solve the show's mysteries.
- Evil Gloating: At the end of the series, Aida Markovna delivers a Bond villain-esque monologue to the protagonists before trying to kill them.
- He Knows Too Much: Aida Markovna had Valeria killed because Valeria once took a picture of Professor Konovalov, whose death was staged as part of her plot to make money by running a drug empire. Markovna had Valeria killed because she feared that Valeria would publish the photograph and thus reveal that Konovalov was alive.
- Markovna killed Seva because he stumbled upon records of Martynov purchasing supplies for drug manufacture.
- Hollywood Hacking: Seva is an example of a Hollywood hacker. If he is shown doing anything hacking-related, it is usually just keyboard-mashing.
- Hollywood Encryption: Only Norskij's phone has any sort of encryption. In all other cases, Seva can access anything with ease, including other people's email accounts, hospital security systems, bank account information, and so forth.
- Inheritance Murder: Frequently a suspected motive for a murder throughout the series.
- I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That: At the end of season 2, after Christina takes out her earplugs, Fisher starts to leave the bunker, but Sofia begs him to stay to keep her safe, since they have heard Markovna say Christina's code phrase, meaning that she would almost definitely kill them for having heard it. Christina replies "Did you two hear something? [Holds up earplugs] I, for instance, didn't hear anything". The others take the hint.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: The assassinations carried out by the "Accident Bureau" are this. A lot of other murders in the series are initially made to look like accidents or natural causes.
- For instance, Norskij is killed by tampering with the building's electrical wires to electrocute him, then a rat is put to make it look as though a rat chewed through the cables and caused his death.
- Mind Control: Professor Ivolgin took children from orphanages then subjected them to a mind control technique as part of his plan to create a personal army. When one of his victims hears a certain phrase, he/she is then made to obey the one who said the phrase. Aida Markovna tries this on Christina.
- Perfect Poison: Any time a poison is used in the series, it is usually instant and guaranteed to kill.
- Photographic Memory: Sofia, the replacement to Valeria in the second season, can perfectly recall any and all information.
- Police Are Useless: Norskij's assassination is deemed to be an accident by the police, and the majority of the investigative work is carried out by the protagonists throughout the series without aid of the police, with the police only carrying out the actual arrest.
- Rudin in particular is presented as dumb and stubborn, requiring enormous effort to be convinced to do anything.
- Red Herring Twist: Frequently, the show will lead the viewer to suspect that a particular character is the murderer by making him/her act suspiciously, only to reveal that it was a different character all along.
- Touch of Death: This is a technique used by Hermes, Christina, and other members of Ivolgin's squad to instantly kill someone and disguise the deed as natural causes.
- Truth Serum: At one point, Christina is kidnapped and her captors interrogate her with a truth serum to try to find where Norskij's phone is.
- Trigger Phrase: Each of the members of Ivolgin's squad had a phrase implanted into them that made them comply with the commands of the one uttering it.
- Idiot Ball: Aida Markovna stands within arm's reach of someone that she knows can kill with a touch. She dies because of this.
- The Reveal:
- That Valeria's Uncle Misha was the one behind the Accident Bureau
- That Aida Markovna, head of the Hippocrates Clinic, was behind the plot to kill Valeria, Seva, and the drug empire
